Kill City USA [Kindle Edition]

Warren Roberts (Author)

Book Description

KILL CITY USA - NEW REVISED 2nd EDITION PUBLISHED FOR KINDLE BY MEAN STREETS PRESS - meanstreetspress.com

It’s South Beach, Florida, summertime, and the living’s uneasy for laconic Brit private eye Joe Milo. The local Yardies have a contract on him, he’s rattled a few urns at a mobster’s crematory and funeral home, and he’s also managed to irritate an Irish Republican group who are running arms to terrorists. They all have one wish in common - for Joe to get out of town pronto.
And few things interest Milo as much as a sexy woman packing a loaded gun, so enter Cza, a Miami Cuban FBI Special Agent who thinks he should be locked up. Plus there’s a Technicolor supporting cast of villains, lovers, liars, killers, cheats, bloodsuckers and miscreant clowns, with morality and political correctness as a fools distraction, and dialogue you could dance to.
Soon psychopathic wiseguy Ernie Moresco sends Milo an empty hourglass to be loaded with his ashes, to put the frighteners on him and his enigmatic sidekick Jonah. While Milo enjoys the elegiac quality of the threat, people around him are tending to die in the mayhem of this wittily tangled crime- noir, as Kill City’s about to live up to it’s name...

“With echoes of Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane, Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard, Warren Roberts has in Joe Milo created a protagonist with no counterpart in currently published British fiction, whose US peers would be Robert B Parker’s Boston PI, Spenser, or Elvis Cole, the PI creation of Robert Crais. His pitch-black mean streets leave other British crime writers in the dull grey mist, and the crisp, cliché-free, lively and cutting narrative, great sex, mayhem and dialogue and memorable one-liners ain’t half-bad as well.” The Tribune

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

In his novel debut, Roberts puts his own twist on hard-boiled noir and successfully channels the voice of beloved gumshoe greats.

Roberts introduces Joe S. Milo, “S, as in Harry S. Truman,” known simply as Milo to his friends; an incorrigible ladies’ man, who may not be fashionably stylish, but more than makes up for it with his sharp wit. Jonah—a menacing, boxing-gym-owning Jamaican with a heart of gold—is Milo’s right-hand man. True to formula, Milo’s first case is Jay, a beautiful, wealthy damsel in distress. Jay’s recently deceased husband bequeathed his company shares to her, but his none-too-savory business partner feels the shares are rightfully his, and he plans to retrieve them by whatever means necessary. Jay’s arrival added a little more spice to Milo’s day, which began with a phone call from his partner Dooley in the Miami office asking for a little help and a lot of advice. Dooley’s brother-in-law, a stock trader, finds himself in the difficult and dangerous position of being in business with the mob. Tomas owes $1.5 million in a hard money loan, which has created a serious health issue for him and his family. By having Jonah accompany Jay to her Miami Beach home, Milo is better able to keep an eye on everyone as he attempts to solve each of their potentially deadly problems, with the bonus of knowing that Jonah is watching his back. No matter how great the danger, Milo handles it with aplomb, always perfectly composed and with a witty quip or sarcastic observation at the ready, though at times it can seem a little excessive. Though Roberts feeds genre formula stereotypes by rendering Milo as an acerbic alcoholic who seems to be battling a perpetual hangover, his efforts are well-executed, organic and without compromise. It may take a while to get used to the densely written pages; however, the dialogue always pops, and Milo has such a descriptive way with words, it’s well worth the effort.

 A contemporary mystery with an old-world feel. 

Product Details

• File Size: 1482 KB
• Print Length: 310 pages
• Publisher: Mean Streets Press (November 18, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005F0EFPQ
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #605,319 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hardboiled crime fiction with an English Accent July 11, 2012

By enzedder1001

Format:Paperback

Two things I look for in a novel are interesting characters and a good story line. Wisecracking English private eye Joe Milo and his laconic Jamaican sidekick Jonah (who "coulda fought as a light-heavyweight at the Barcelona Olympics but for a slight misunderstanding about a urine sample") fill the first requirement admirably. They are introduced to us by Warren Roberts in his debut novel Kill City USA. Milo is engaged by a beautiful (of course!) widow who is being blackmailed by her deceased husband's former business partner. This triggers an investigation that takes Milo and Jonah from London to Miami to Detroit and back again, bringing them face to face with a whole gaggle of Irish, Cuban and European bad guys involved in gun running, drug trafficking and other illicit activities along the way. Requirement No. 2 (good story) satisfied.

Roberts' writing is fast-paced, intelligent and literate (I bet you've never seen Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice referred to as "Limey literary sh*t" in any other hardboiled noir crime fiction novel you've read). I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes hardboiled crime fiction page-turners featuring protagonists with a bit of an attitude. Milo fits the bill admirably. His English accent sets him apart from most other private eyes we all know. James Bond and Miss Marple share the accent, but they have about as much in common with Milo as Nero Wolfe has with Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe.

OK, so I liked it, but would you? To give some perspective: I grew up watching B westerns (no sappy love scenes) and reading Carter Brown books (crime fiction, not much in the way of character development). Two of my favorite movies are Pulp Fiction and Goodfellas. I think Silverado is an excellent spoof of the cowboy movie genre. I like most kinds of music (though symphony orchestras put me to sleep), but I hate musicals (never understood breaking the action to sing a song). Not much into romance, but I probably read about as much fiction as non-fiction.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Amusing, but too convoluted August 5, 2012

By Allen s

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I liked Milo, the hero, since he's irreverent, but the story has too many sub-plots to keep everyone straight. Maybe it's me. I'm a simple man.
Eventually, they all intertwine.
It was free and a quick read, so what can you lose?
I didn't get excited.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Too smooth January 25, 2013

By uberschizo

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

A formula airport novel, with characters that are too smooth, too perfect to be believable. A story so slick, it doesnt stick at all. Read if you are stuck somewhere and want some mindless violence and flamboyant characters.

More About the Author

Warren Roberts was born in New Zealand and has travelled to about 75 countries, including many of the world's most insalubrious ports of call.

He has worked and lived worldwide with careers in banking, international trade and finance, television and publishing, where he met a Technicolor cast of villains, lovers, killers, liars, cheats, bloodsuckers, and miscreant clowns, with morality as a fools distraction.

He has drawn upon some of the unsavoury characters and events that he has encountered to write Kill City USA, The Bell of Girardius and The Whore of Babylon.

A fan of Hollywood B movies, Warren lives in London with his fedora.

PRAISE FROM KIRKUS REVIEWS

KILL CITY USA
"In his novel debut, Roberts puts his own twist on hard-boiled noir and successfully channels the voice of beloved gumshoe greats ... his efforts are well-executed, organic and without compromise ... No matter how great the danger, Milo handles it with aplomb, always perfectly composed and with a witty quip or sarcastic observation at the ready ... the dialogue always pops, and Milo has such a descriptive way with words, it's well worth the effort ... A contemporary mystery with an old-world feel."

THE BELL OF GIRARDIUS
"An action-packed adventure with the interminably charming and witty Joe Milo and his Jamaican sidekick Jonah ... another exciting mystery with a healthy serving of the supernatural ... Written with great delineation and range, Roberts' cast of diverse characters continues to jump off the page. While Jonah volleys easily between lovable and hard-as-nails, Milo stays true, armed with a sharp wit, endless charm and a penchant for finding trouble ... the author edifies on all things satanic ... Another successful Joe Milo experience."

THE WHORE OF BABYLON
"As is always the case where Milo is concerned, no job is too dangerous, and no beautiful woman shall be left unconquered ... For those who've read the whole Joe Milo series, two things will be abundantly clear: There's no villain threatening enough to scare Joe Milo, be it mob boss, Satanist or ex-KGB sociopath. The second is that the author has no time for weak women. From Russian madams to devil worshippers and cage fighters, Roberts renders strong and intelligent female characters and really knows how to put the fatale in femme fatale. Usually by the third go-round, characters and plots lose luster; Roberts keeps his tales shiny, robust and primed for more."

JOE MILO/MEAN STREETS PRESS

Published by Mean Streets Press, Warren's Joe Milo thrillers are tastily-tangled crimes noir.

They feature a laconic and appealingly self deprecating British private investigator, Joe Milo, his enigmatic Jamaican sidekick Jonah, plus a Technicolor cast of villains, lovers, killers, liars, cheats, bloodsuckers, and miscreant clowns, with morality and political correctness as a fool's distraction. The novels combine page-turning intrigue, character conflict and suspense with lively, crisp and cutting dialogue and dark humour, while paying respect to literary noir (without deferring to excessive pastiche).

They will appeal to readers who like their private dicks to be hip, tough, politically incorrect, street-smart, casually efficient, literate, and to have moral complexity.

Milo, their protagonist, believes that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. He has an agile wit, a remorseless put-down of the second-rate in people, yet a soupçon of compassion hidden beneath a sardonically flip exterior. He likes booze and women, both to excess. His conscience is personal, rather than social, and he uses a sardonic wisecrack as effectively as a left hook. His verbal mots justes are used not for triumphalism, but rather to promote action and reaction. At heart he is a loner and a sceptic. Hypocrisy, officialdom, and prevarication he suffers badly, and he continues the tradition of the American literary and cinematic-noir PI, in British settings.

Milo's cryptic, street-wise and taciturn (he thinks Harpo Marx talked too much) sidekick, Jonah, has a day job running a testosterone-fuelled gym in London's Earls Court, and he would have represented Great Britain as an Olympic boxer, but for 'a slight misunderstanding about a urine sample.'